Arkansas’ defense, inexperience to be tested against South Dakota State
The No. 9 Arkansas Razorbacks are set to face South Dakota State on Wednesday, and while the Jackrabbits come into Bud Walton Arena 1-1, Arkansas head coach Eric Musselman is making sure not to overlook his opponent.
“South Dakota State is not a well-coached team, they’re an excellent-coached basketball team,” Musselman said. “They have a lot of skilled position players.”
Eric Henderson is the head man for the Jackrabbits and led the team to 30 wins and an NCAA Tournament appearance last season. Despite losing Baylor Scheierman to the transfer portal over the off-season, South Dakota State was projected to finish second in the Summit League, only behind Oral Roberts. The team also had two preseason first-team All-Summit selections in Luke Appel and Zeke Mayo.
Appel, reigning Summit Sixth Man of the Year, has yet to play this season, but Mayo is currently averaging 13.0 points and 5.5 rebounds. Musselman is preparing for Appel to be back against the Hogs Wednesday, though.
“And then Appel we're assuming is coming back or close to coming back,” Musselman said. “No. 13, who will be one of their best returning players who has not played in their first two games. But it would be anticipated that he would play in our game Wednesday.”
The Jackrabbits have shown in their first two games that they have plenty of playmakers outside of their two first-team selections, as noted by Musselman.
“34, (Alex) Arians, he’s a lefty, he’s got great toughness,” Musselman said. “He can make open threes. He’s got a pull-up game off the bounce mid-range. Mayo, No. 2, a primary scorer. He can create his own shot. Has great range. He’s got deep, deep, deep range. Easley, No. 30 at the small forward spot, can really shoot the ball.”
While the numbers don’t show it early this season, the South Dakota State team is full of shooters. Through two games this season, Arians is 0-for-3 from outside, but shot 49.3% on the year last season, averaging just over two attempts per game. Similarly, Easley is just 1-of-5 for 20% this season, but last year shot 50.0% from beyond the arc on 2.7 attempts per game. Mayo shot 41.5% last year on 3.9 attempts from range, but has only made 4-of-13 for 30.8% this season.
Arkansas has allowed its opponents to shoot merely a combined 23.7% from three so far this season. Regardless of South Dakota State’s percentages this season, the threat is there from the outside and will really test the Razorbacks’ three-point defense that has been such a strength early on.
This Jackrabbits team is talented, pesky and poses a threat from the outside, and is also coming off a quality upset victory on the road at Boise State. Before that, they lost on the road at Akron in overtime by a point.
“It’s a unique perspective, at least from my chair,” Musselman said, “because Akron and their staff and Coach (John) Groce, John and I talk, we’re friends.
“And then you add in the fact that Coach (Leon) Rice and Boise State, we have incredible respect for Boise State. And I know how tough it is to win in that building, because we had to try to do it for four years.”
Musselman later noted that Arkansas was one of those teams that was upset at home last season (Hofstra in Little Rock), and that anything can happen in college athletics.
“We were one of those teams last year,” Musselman said. “Look, the way that college athletics is in basketball, baseball, football, anybody can beat anybody. We see it on a daily basis. The transfer stuff has changed this dramatically.
“I mean, I look at South Dakota State’s team and look at the pieces that they have back, whether it’s No. 13 Apple, whether it’s 32, Dentlinger, whether it’s 34, Arians, whether it’s 2, Mayo. These guys played on a 30-win team. They know how to win. They know how to win on the road. We’ve got six freshmen and 11 new players, so we have to play at a high level where you can win games like this. It just doesn’t happen. And we scheduled South Dakota State because we believe that they can win their conference.”
The Hogs and Jackrabbits will tipoff at 7 p.m. CT Wednesday inside Bud Walton Arena. The game will be streamed on the SEC Network Plus.